These banana muffins are soft, buttery, and spiced with cinnamon. They’re wonderful plain, with chopped walnuts, or even chocolate chips. You need 3 large ripe bananas and a few basic kitchen ingredients to get started.
Banana bread is wonderful, but muffins are quicker, more convenient, easily portable, and taste just as good. I’ve been searching for the perfect EASY banana muffin recipe since my daughter began eating solids. We always have bananas in the house which means we eventually have spotty bananas ready for baking!
These quick and easy banana muffins bake in 30 minutes, so if you need to be in and out of the kitchen FAST (um, don’t we all?), this recipe is your savior.
Banana Muffin Ingredients—Each Is Important!
This banana muffin recipe requires a handful of basics like flour, sugar, and milk. That’s what I love about baking—it’s the same base ingredients for basically everything.
- Flour: I tested the recipe with both all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour and LOVED both variations. See recipe Note below.
- Melted Butter: We’ll use melted butter as the fat, though melted coconut oil works too. I love using melted butter in baked goods, and though I was afraid these banana muffins would taste too dense without creaming softened butter (which incorporates air), that’s not the case at all.
- Bananas, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg: The flavor team.
- Egg: 1 egg gives the muffins structure.
- Milk: A common ingredient in some muffin recipes including pumpkin muffins, milk provides necessary moisture. Dry muffins… the worst.
- Sugar: Sweetens. When I make these for my daughter, I use half brown sugar and half coconut sugar. You can use all brown sugar, all coconut sugar, or a mixture of the two. Keep in mind that coconut sugar isn’t quite as sweet as brown sugar, so the flavor will change. See my recipe Note. 🙂
Do these banana muffins taste like banana bread? Yes, totally! But they have a lighter, softer, and more buttery texture. You’ll love it.
How to Make Banana Muffins Moist
There’s a fine line between a moist banana muffin and a dry banana muffin, aka sandpaper in a cupcake wrapper. To make banana muffins moist, make sure you’re using a solid ratio of dry to wet ingredients. I found the muffins to be dry without the addition of liquid, but a couple Tablespoons of milk solved the problem. Use a little fat (butter), brown sugar, and plenty of bananas for lots of moisture and flavor.
How to Mash Bananas
So I started doing this last year and it’s been a total game changer whenever I make banana cake, these breakfast cookies, banana bread, or chocolate banana bread. Just use your mixer to mash bananas! Peel and break them into chunks, place in your mixer, and beat until mashed. Beat the rest of the wet ingredients right into this bowl, then beat in the dry ingredients. So easy.
Can I Use Frozen Bananas?
Yes and I do this often. Thaw the frozen bananas at room temperature. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe below. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking. Try not to mash too much or else you’ll be left with 2 cups of banana-y liquid; some chunks are great.
This banana muffin recipe is perfect if you:
- Have 3 large spotty bananas
- Love banana bread
- Need a quick homemade breakfast, snack, etc.
- Don’t feel like creaming butter and sugar together
- Don’t feel like dirtying 100 pans
And, to turn these into a scrumptious treat, you could dip the tops of the cooled muffins into chocolate ganache and add sprinkles. (Affiliate link: I love these naturally colored sprinkles.) You can also add the streusel topping from these banana chocolate chip streusel muffins.
More Muffin Recipes
These easy banana muffins have been my default for awhile, though I usually switch between these and a couple other muffin recipes previously published. I consider these muffins on the healthier side and they’re each toddler & adult approved. 🙂
- Baby Apple Oat Muffins
- Bran Muffins
- Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins (these include oats)
- Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
- Healthy Apple Muffins & Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Morning Glory Muffins
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Zucchini Muffins
- Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
- Healthy Blueberry Banana Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Would love to know if you try any of them!
Print
Quick & Easy Banana Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These banana muffins are soft, buttery, and spiced with cinnamon. They’re wonderful plain, but taste fantastic with 1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips. You need 3 ripe bananas and a handful of basic kitchen ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas (about 4 medium or 3 large ripe bananas)
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)
- 2/3 cup (135g) packed light or dark brown sugar (or coconut sugar)*
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk*
- optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or use cupcake liners.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, mash the bananas. On medium speed, beat or whisk in the melted butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then beat or whisk until combined. If adding nuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now. Batter will be thick.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 16–18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 21–23 minutes, give or take. (For mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C).) Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to continue cooling.
- Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: For longer storage, freeze muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Why the initial high temperature? The hot burst of air will spring up the top of the muffin quickly, then the inside of the muffin can bake for the remainder of the time. This helps the muffins rise nice and tall.
- Whole Wheat Flour: Feel free to substitute whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour or use a mix of both as long as you use 1 and 1/2 cups total. If using all whole wheat flour, add another Tablespoon (15ml) of milk.
- Frozen Bananas: You can use frozen bananas here. Thaw the frozen bananas. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
- Sugar: You can use 2/3 cup of packed brown sugar or coconut sugar. Or a mixture of these to yield 2/3 cup. If using 2/3 cup coconut sugar, the muffins won’t be as sweet. I find they taste best with 2/3 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup of each. 2/3 cup of honey or pure maple syrup works too, though the muffins will taste a little more moist in the centers. I’m unsure about sugar substitutes, but let me know if you try any.
- Milk: Use your favorite variety of dairy or nondairy milk.
- Banana Bread: Here’s my favorite banana bread recipe. 🙂
Reader Comments and Reviews
So, I really want to love these! the top fluffed out beautifully, and was soft and tasty (even though I did add salted butter by mistake). I doubled the recipe and added one cup of chocolate chips, and one cup of chopped walnuts.
……but, for some reason, the bottoms got completely scorched and are kind of inedible 🙁 (it’s basically a gradient from top to bottom of good cupcake to black as tar and fused to my cupcake liners.) I bake plenty and this hasn’t happened before so I don’t think it’s the muffin tray, nor the oven (though I wonder if the “temperature change” didn’t happen fast enough?). Any insight into why this might have happened? I followed the recipe to a T (san butter)
Hi Rebecca, it sounds like your muffins were just over-baked. What position in the oven was your pan in? We usually bake in the lower third of the oven, but if they charred so badly, maybe your oven did not like the high heat trick. You could try skipping that next time. We do always recommend using an in-oven thermometer so you can be certain your oven is the temperature it is supposed to be. Sorry these didn’t turn out for you!
Hello Trina! Mine was also in the lower third, but perhaps next time I will try a middle position. If skipping the high heat trick, how long would you recommend baking the muffins for?
My housemates still evidently enjoyed (and gobbled up!) the muffin tops so all was not lost! 🙂 Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Rebecca, we’re not exactly sure – we would add at last a few minutes if baking at 350 the whole time. Use a toothpick to test for doneness. So glad they were still enjoyed!
Love your recipe! The muffins turned out soft and beautiful!! A quick recipe for teatime! Thank you!!
I made this today, and made one substitution. I used 1/4 cup of plain applesauce instead of an egg, since my daughter is allergic. They turned out so good!
Hi. I decreased the banana to 1 cup and added 1/2 cup of mashed strawberries. Perfection.
Made it last night and turned out amazingly good. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
These came out so tasty!! Love Sally’s recipes! I even made mine gluten free with King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure flour. I used the scale measurements and they came out perfect! Also, I didn’t have baking powder, so I upped my baking soda to 1 1/2 tsp and added about 2 tsp lemon juice to my wet, and they rose beautifully!
You have two different cooking temperatures.
It’s misleading.
Hi Stephanie, You use the higher temperature for the first five minutes, then lower the temperature for the remainder of the bake time. The hot burst of air will spring up the top of the muffin quickly, then the inside of the muffin can bake for the remainder of the time. This helps the muffins rise nice and tall.
Worked out yummy. I added chopped bar chocolate.
Amazing muffin recipe!!! These not only tasted amazing but they looked very presentable once baked. All my family and friends loved these muffins!!
Wow! Prefect recipe. No substitutions or changed needed.
So simple
I haven’t even tried them yet and I can just tell how good they are going to be from the smell!!!
Hello,
I love your muffins 🙂
How many calories are in each muffin made here?
Thanks
Joe
Hi Joe! We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
I didn’t expect these to come out as good as they did! I didn’t have any butter, so used coconut oil instead. I also pushed a square of milk chocolate into the centre of each muffin after baking. Sooo yummy!
I’m in Australia where we use fan-forced oven – I lowered the temps by 15c and baked for the specified time and they were perfectly cooked
A solid recipe!! So easy to make and flavorful and delicious
I watched the YT video to be sure, but I have no idea how the batter on YT didn’t become super thick. Mine came out super super thick and crumbly lol.
Hi R, could there have been too much flour in the batter? How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
Love receiving your delectable recipes! Haven’t tried them yet, but really looking forward to! Also, will comment on them!
Already purchased your cookbook “Sally’s Baking 101” & have enjoyed browsing through it!
Will you be coming out with a cookbook other than “baking” – eg. Main courses, appetizers, salads, soups, breads/rolls, etc.?
Thank you for your wonderful tips, pointers, great advice & “how to’s & not to’s” !! Sue
This recipe survived me, so it must be good! I did not cool the melted butter. I did not warm the egg. I had only three of the four bananas required. I added some Torani banana flavoring to compensate. I also added both mini chocolate chips and walnuts, topping with turbinado sugar. Very moist and flavorful despite my inability to follow directions.
Just made your banana muffins and I can easily say, they are the best I’ve ever had. Thank you for the recipe
The best banana muffins I have ever made!
I used all ingredients with exact quantities, I left the sugar out and added 2 tbs of maple syrup instead. I whisked the bananas for a few minute with electric whisk. Used exact temperature recommendations they were so fluffy and delicious. Thank you for this recipe.
Fabulous recipe!
So Big and moist! My family absolutely love these banana muffins. Thank you for sharing
I just found your site. I can’t wait to try some of your recipes. It would be helpful to me to know the nutritional value of the recipes. Is that included anywhere? Thank you!
Hi Sheila, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Made these with chocolate chips…yum! I replaced 50g of flour with cocoa powder once and wow.
Just made these and they are sooo tasty. Thank you for the recipe x
I made these for a church meeting. They came out horrible. Not sure what went wrong. No taste at all. Sorry to say.
Hi Nancy, we’re so sorry to hear that. Were your bananas ripe enough? A lot of the flavor comes from the bananas, and you’ll want them spotty so that they have more sweetness than a banana that you would eat on its own.
These banana bread muffins are divine! Such a hit in my house. I use mini chocolate chips and they are DELICIOUS. This is my go-to recipe for banana muffins!
Sounds delicious. What temp & time for mini muffins ? Thanks
Hi Deb, for mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C) the entire time.
Made it tonight. Best recipe ever!
What if I’m short of bananas? I have three but they weigh about 320g
Hi Lexi! You could add some applesauce or yogurt/sour cream to make up the difference.
Made these today, followed recipe exactly, added mini chocolate chips. They came out great, just out of the oven, wish you could smell my house right now! Thanks for a great recipe.